In the end, to repay Welt for sponsoring the "Herrscher Core of Reason" that allowed the two of them to attain Truth, Elias and Bronya each gifted this youthful-at-heart uncle two figurines.
Metal skeleton. Electroplated parts. No seam lines.
And they were full 1:1 scale, one hundred percent accurate replicas of the Baldur exoskeleton armor and the Truth mech figurine. They could even automatically transform through voice commands!
When Welt received them, his eyes lit up. The usual steadiness and seriousness he maintained became impossible to uphold. He grinned like a member of the Kaslana family who had just walked into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
After that...
"Haah? You two became Herrschers of Truth?!"
"You broke through the limits of the Herrscher of Reason's authority? As Herrschers of Truth, you can create anything?!"
"You should've said so earlier!!"
When Einstein and Tesla learned that Elias and Bronya had attained Truth, even the normally calm chicken-haired doctor lost her composure, let alone the lobster-haired doctor.
The significance of the Herrscher of Truth was not merely for humanity—it was for an entire civilization!
In theory, if a Herrscher of Truth fully assisted a civilization's development, then evolving from a modern civilization into an interstellar civilization could be accomplished in an extremely short span of time.
And it wasn't just those two.
When Mobius, Vill-V, and MEI found out about this, these three mad scientists standing at the pinnacle of human intellect practically drooled as they looked at Elias and Bronya.
Truth! This was Truth!!
The Herrscher of Truth who could create anything!!
Elias had originally planned to wait a while before testing their authority. But he simply could not withstand the frenzy of these scientists. Fortunately, there were still two days before Alexandra's arrival.
He and Bronya could at least spare a day to satisfy the curiosity of these mad scientists.
Of course, Elias and Bronya themselves were also enthusiastically experimenting with their authority. The power of Truth was simply too interesting, too convenient, too omnipotent.
As long as they wished it, even fantasies could be turned into reality. For example, gigantic combining robots from anime, transformation belts from masked heroes, and so on.
Thus...
1: Build a super engine exceeding Mach 25.
2: Explore the construction limits of [Nonexistent Objects].
3: Construct the armament [Domain of Ascension: Truth Continuity].
4: Break objective constraints and synthesize a new type of nanometal.
5: Construct a difficult game that Bronya cannot clear.
6: Construct a new type of cooking robot.
7: Develop a brand-new transportation vehicle.
8: Construct a super combining robot.
...
Inside the Valkyrie dormitory, Theresa and the others stared at the task list, which stretched two or three meters long, completely dumbfounded.
"Um, Bronya, are these trial projects you made to test your Truth authority?"
"No. This is Project Bunny's task list. Bronya has more important matters to attend to."
Duck said this while constructing a virtual training combat room that could perfectly replicate everyone's abilities. She declared that from now on, Theresa would never again have to worry about the training room exploding.
Theresa: "R-Really?! That's amazing!"
Rita: "Oh? I imagine Miss Bronya constructed such a training room at this moment either for practical sparring... or to launch a war of love."
Mei: "Let's make this clear first. No focusing fire on me this time!"
Ana: "I-I'll do my best too!"
Fu Hua: "The Herrscher of Truth, hm? Interesting."
Bronya: "Hehe~ Everyone, have you ever seen a star shatter?"
Half an hour later, after an incomparably intense super battle, Bronya curled her lips upward and exited the virtual training room in the posture of a victor.
The outrageous strength of the Herrscher of Truth left all the girls utterly shocked. No one had expected that the down-and-out bottom-ranked duck—who not long ago wasn't even a Herrscher, a Stigmata awakener, a MANTIS, or an S-rank Valkyrie—would directly counterattack to such a degree!
It was far more exaggerated than Rita Rossweisse becoming a MANTIS and obtaining the Spina Astera not long ago!
But that was merely playful sparring. Immediately afterward, Elias and Bronya delivered a massive upgrade to the Previous Era.
The latter was responsible for enhancing St. Freya Academy, including but not limited to mass-producing S-rank Valkyrie armors, large-scale replication of pseudo Divine Keys, and constructing the Truth-series anti-Honkai unmanned mechs.
The former went to outer space to upgrade the satellites.
From now on, even the smallest Honkai energy incident on Earth—forget Seraph-class Honkai Beasts—even the position of every single zombie could be clearly monitored by satellite.
At the same time, Elias also constructed a portal device similar to a "Stargate," ensuring that even without the authority of the Herrscher of the Void, spatial teleportation could be achieved anywhere from across the globe to the Moon.
Durandal was overjoyed, declaring that she would finally no longer need to rush across vast distances for missions. Efficiency greatly increased!
Elias: "Although doing this has slightly increased the Honkai energy intensity of the Current Era, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks."
The next day, the real testing began.
Elias, Bronya, and the others all arrived at the Sea of Quanta, using this infinite ocean as their testing ground.
"Why did we specifically come to the Sea of Quanta to test?"
"Theresa, did you forget? Honkai increases its own intensity as civilization grows stronger. But what we're about to test is the upper limit of the Herrscher of Truth's authority."
"If these two go overboard and cause the Honkai intensity to skyrocket to an extreme level, then the favorable situation the Current Era painstakingly achieved would be ruined. So we have to choose a place the Cocoon of Finality cannot observe."
"After all, none of us wants to see a scene where Judgment-class Honkai Beasts are worse than dogs, and Vipralopa-class Honkai Beasts roam everywhere. Thus, this Sea of Quanta is the optimal testing site."
"I-I see... Wait, what?! Can the Herrscher of Truth's authority really cause such an exaggerated impact?"
A certain launcher who had dropped to B-rank after losing Judah stared at Elias and Bronya in shock, feeling as though they were treating her like an idiot and joking around.
Just a single ascended Herrscher—could they really do something as absurd as raising the upper limit of an entire civilization? That had to be a lie, right?
"No, Theresa. The potential of the Herrscher of Truth is just this terrifying. Because it can be said to be, aside from the Herrscher of Finality... the Herrscher closest to the Imaginary Tree."
Elias narrowed his eyes as he spoke with emotion.
"Well then~ Let the experiment begin. Let's start with something big to warm up. Duck, why don't you try constructing a..."
Elias leaned in and whispered mysteriously into Bronya's ear.
"Y-You're starting with the main course right away? Alright. Bronya will try to see if she can do it."
Bronya's eyes widened, then she became eager to try.
After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she operated the Core within her body at an efficiency unimaginable to outsiders, turning the fictional fantasy in her mind into concrete reality.
"Framework constructed. Assessing target feasibility. Assessment successful. Injecting exotic matter. Generation begins!"
Bronya's eyes snapped open. The girl raised both hands, as though touching Truth invisible to ordinary people.
As Honkai energy was consumed at a violent rate, a colossal creation slowly began to appear—so massive that "blotting out the sky" would not be an exaggeration. It was a battleship far larger than a bubble world.
First came its outer silhouette. Then the internal structure of the warship began to take shape.
With Bronya's knowledge reserves, she naturally had no idea how to build a battleship.
Thus, this was merely her "imagination."
But the authority of the Herrscher of Truth was gradually turning that imagination into reality in a feasible manner.
However...
"N-No... Bronya can't do it..."
Before even one-tenth of the whole had been constructed, Bronya's body swayed and she nearly collapsed. Her eyes had already turned into spirals, and she almost fainted on the spot.
"Sister Bronya!"
Seele hurried forward to support Duck.
After carefully checking her condition and confirming that she had merely exhausted her Honkai energy and was otherwise unharmed, she finally let out a sigh of relief.
"What the heck, Bronya, you're so weak. You couldn't even last from the start."
"...Kiana, did you forget who pinned you to the ground yesterday and blasted you away with a single shot?"
"Y-Yesterday doesn't count! I wasn't in good condition!"
"Alright, stop bickering. How do you feel, Duck?"
Elias wrapped an arm around the weakened Bronya and poured his own Honkai energy into her body. In an instant, the girl's completely drained energy bar was refilled.
"Emmm... It's feasible. But as you saw, Elias, Bronya's Honkai energy is too little. She simply can't construct something that large."
Duck shook her head regretfully. No matter how powerful the authority of Truth was, the Honkai energy within her was still only at the level of a dual-Core Herrscher. She had been drained dry in an instant.
"Uh, what exactly were you trying to build just now?"
Vill-V asked curiously. Even with her insight, she hadn't been able to tell what Bronya was constructing. From the exterior alone, she could only judge it to be a super battleship.
"Bronya was attempting to build a Star Destroyer."
"A-A Star Destroyer?!" xN
The girls were so shocked their jaws nearly hit the ground.
No one had expected Bronya to go this big right from the start. At the same time, they were grateful this experiment hadn't been conducted in the proper world. If she failed to build it, that would be one thing. But if she had actually succeeded by accident—
(Honkai: Oh? Raising the intensity? Finally time for an epic-level buff! Let's mass-produce Planet-class Honkai Beasts!)
"Wait! You said the reason you failed was insufficient Honkai energy. That means if you had enough Honkai energy, Bronya, you really could build a Star Destroyer?!"
Theresa hurriedly asked. At the same time, she felt this was completely unscientific. A Star Destroyer had already surpassed the limits of Earth's current civilization. How could such a thing possibly be built?
Sure, there were indeed a few monsters present who could destroy planets. But that was a different matter entirely. Handcrafting a Star Destroyer was just too outrageous!
"Oh, Theresa, don't be so shocked. For the Herrscher of Truth, nothing is impossible. After all, this is our authority."
Elias proudly patted his chest.
The Herrscher of Truth was the hyper-evolved version of the Herrscher of Reason.
Originally, the upper limit of the Herrscher of Reason's authority was the technological ceiling of the civilization in which it was born.
For example, if the highest technology of a civilization was the nuclear bomb, then the Herrscher of Reason's authority could at most construct nuclear bombs.
But the Herrscher of Truth was different. The scope of what its authority could construct was the pinnacle permitted by the entire Imaginary realm.
This meant that even ultra-advanced technologies nonexistent in the current civilization—as long as they had been recorded somewhere upon the Imaginary Tree (across the entire universe and all parallel worlds)—the Herrscher of Truth could recreate them.
And without needing personal understanding. Imagination alone was enough.
As long as the object imagined had once existed upon the Imaginary Tree, the authority of Truth would automatically reproduce it.
Just like earlier. Although Bronya didn't know how to build a Star Destroyer, the Imaginary automatically transmitted its construction method to the Herrscher Core of Truth.
As long as Bronya supplied sufficient Honkai energy, the authority of Truth would automatically construct the Star Destroyer for her.
This could truly be called an ultimate cheat!!
"Th-This is way too outrageous! Bronya, won't you get banned for this?!"
Everyone present sucked in a cold breath.
The Herrscher of Truth was the peak of "If I think it, it works" power! Bronya was practically Earth's god of technology now!
If not for the threat of Honkai, no one could imagine just how explosively Earth's technological development would soar under the leadership of the Herrscher of Truth.
At that point, the upper limit of civilization would no longer be the limit of current technology—but the limit of Bronya's imagination!!
"Ahem... Actually, the Herrscher of Truth isn't quite as exaggerated as you all think. There are still some restrictions."
Bronya said a little embarrassedly.
"What restrictions?"
Everyone froze.
"Although Bronya can now construct the technologies of all civilizations, she is still limited by her own Honkai energy reserves and output power."
Bronya shook her head with some regret.
"Especially when constructing technological products that do not belong to the current civilization, the Honkai energy consumption increases exponentially. For example, with the Star Destroyer just now, Bronya couldn't even complete one-tenth of it."
"Oh, I see. That's not so—wait, what do you mean that's still ridiculously broken!!"
What Herrscher of Truth? It might as well be renamed the Herrscher of Cheat Codes. It was like everyone else was playing a normal game, but Duck could freely install mods!
For example, in a medieval souls-like game focused on melee combat, others would have to risk being one-shot while fighting head-on with melee weapons.
But Bronya could just spawn a Gatling gun in the game!
"Hehe~ This is Bronya's era now."
Duck revealed a proud smile and put her hands on her hips.
However, at that moment, Elias spoke.
"Emmm, the consumption really is huge."
"Huh?" xN
"But fortunately, my MP pool is pretty big~ Done!"
"Ah?" xN
The girls suddenly noticed that the sky of the Sea of Quanta had darkened.
When they turned around, they saw an enormous Star Destroyer blotting out the heavens, floating above their heads.
Elias wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking thoroughly pleased.
The Star Destroyer—he had built it.
"E-Elias, you actually..."
"Right... We almost forgot Elias has absurd amounts of Honkai energy."
Even after evolving into the Herrscher of Truth and possessing the Herrscher Core of Rebirth within her, the Honkai energy in Bronya's body had not surpassed the threshold of 10,000 HW.
But Elias' Honkai energy had long since broken past 4,000,000 HW. The gap in MP between the two was nearly four hundred times.
Thus, the Star Destroyer Bronya couldn't build was truly nothing to Elias. Not just one—he could build several more if he wanted!
"Since we've gone through the trouble of building it, let's fire a shot to celebrate!"
Elias revealed an excited expression as he began searching for a target.